CS Lewis wrote a lot about miracles, and he understood more clearly than most people that Christianity without the miraculous is literally nothing. In his essay, “The Grand Miracle,” Lewis wrote, “One is very often asked at present whether we could not have a Christianity stripped, or, as people who ask it say, ‘freed’ from its miraculous elements, a Christianity with the miraculous elements suppressed. Now, it seems to me that precisely the one religion in the world, or, at least, the only one I know, with which you could not do that is Christianity.”[1]

Christianity is centered on a series of miraculous events. God became man for the first miracle. One particular man lived a sinless life. That’s a miracle if I know anything about human nature. God loved humanity enough that He was willing to sacrifice His Son on the cross as the propitiation for our sin.

However, what Lewis calls The Grand Miracle trumps all of these.

“That is why I think this Grand Miracle is the missing chapter in this novel, the chapter on which the whole plot turns; that is why I believe that God really has dived down into the bottom of creation, and has come up bringing the whole redeemed nature on His shoulder.”[2]

Without miracles, Jesus Christ would literally be impossible. Jesus would not be Jesus if this Grand Miracle did not take place. He could have died, but if He did not rise again, He would not have triumphed over death. Death would be not defeated, but death would be the champion. That is why the resurrection is so important and more generally, the miraculous.

If God did not become a man in the miraculous Incarnation, Jesus would just be another human being like you or me. The miraculous began the story as well.

I know that there might be plenty of pressure to buy into materialism. There is pressure to deny that the supernatural could influence the world in any way.

However, if you deny the possibility of miracles, it is not possible to be a Christian. You can pick a different worldview, but if you cannot affirm with your mouth that Jesus rose from the dead, you cannot be a Christian. CS Lewis understood that.

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Exploring the Reason for the Hope That We Have

Be sure to check out my debut eBook Contending for the Christian Worldview: 30 Days of Reflections on Faith, Culture and Apologetics on Amazon or Smashwords.

Take a 30 day journey through the Bible and reflect on what it means to be a Christian in modern society. This devotional will encourage you to consider the reason for the hope that we have in Jesus Christ.